Brad Bird

WHEN Brad Bird was brought in to take over "Ratatouille," a new movie about -- sacre bleu! -- a rodent in a five-star Parisian restaurant, he immediately took issue with the rats. They were all wrong. To begin with, they were walking around on two legs. And they had short tails. "They were trying to deratify the rats," Bird said of the animators who were working on the Pixar/Disney film before he came on board.

They've done without the number this time, but anyone who cares knows that "Mission Impossible — Ghost Protocol" is really "Mission Impossible 4," the fourth time Tom Cruise's intrepid Ethan Hunt has taken on the evildoers of the world. And the fourth time a different adventurous director has orchestrated the action. Brian De Palma, John Woo and J.J. Abrams were the choices the first three times around, and the selection here is the most unexpected yet: Brad Bird, making his live-action debut after directing three exceptional animated films: "Ratatouille," "The Incredibles" and "Iron Giant.

REMY, c'est moi? It's hard not to think that when meeting Brad Bird, "Ratatouille's" writer-director. He thoroughly identifies with his rat protagonist Remy, who yearns to be a chef in the heretofore unwelcoming kitchen of the legendary French restaurant Gusteau. Remy, an unsung artist with a sensational sense of smell, is a misfit in his tribe of rats.

The last two films Nanette Burstein directed focused on similar themes — heartbreak, passion, ambition, peer pressure and yearning. Yet as comparable as the subject matter might have been, Burstein was working in considerably different forms: Her 2008 film "American Teen" was a documentary about Midwestern high school seniors, while Sept. 3's "Going the Distance" is a fictional feature about bicoastal thirtysomethings. Hollywood is constantly looking in unusual directions for fresh filmmaking talent.

Poor Bob Parr. Not too long into the opening of the new animated film "The Incredibles," the man formerly known as the superhero Mr. Incredible has become a faceless corporate drone -- consigned to the quietly humiliating life of a powerless insurance adjuster.

The last two films Nanette Burstein directed focused on similar themes — heartbreak, passion, ambition, peer pressure and yearning. Yet as comparable as the subject matter might have been, Burstein was working in considerably different forms: Her 2008 film "American Teen" was a documentary about Midwestern high school seniors, while Sept. 3's "Going the Distance" is a fictional feature about bicoastal thirtysomethings. Hollywood is constantly looking in unusual directions for fresh filmmaking talent.

"The Incredibles," a fable about a family of superheroes, beat out "Shark Tale" and "Shrek 2" to win the Oscar for best animated feature. Writer-director Brad Bird thanked "the holy trinity" of Pixar Animation Studios -- chief Steve Jobs, President Ed Catmull and its animation guru, John Lasseter -- for "making the greatest studio on the face of the Earth." The victory is a vindication for fresh-faced Bird, who's knocked around Hollywood for decades as a "potential" animation wonder.

Regarding "The Recipe for 'Ratatouille,' " (June 28): I have a rat -- oops, I mean bone -- to pick with writer-director Brad Bird. My dear son Remy, 11, is about to endure his own personal summer of hell. I wasn't sure what the fallout from "Ratatouille" would be until we had a taste of it on a ferry ride around the San Francisco Bay. When I yelled out his name, a gaggle of kids sitting nearby excitedly started chanting, "Remy the rat, Remy the rat, Remy the rat." We were speechless.

Animated feature "Persepolis," Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud "Ratatouille," Brad Bird "Surf's Up," Ash Brannon and Chris Buck -- Foreign language film "Beaufort," Israel "The Counterfeiters," Austria "Katy{nacutel}," Poland "Mongol," Kazakhstan "12," Russia -- Adapted screenplay "Atonement," Christopher Hampton "Away From Her," Sarah Polley "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," Ronald Harwood "No Country for Old Men," Joel Coen & Ethan Coen "There Will Be Blood," Paul Thomas Anderson -- Original screenplay "Juno," Diablo Cody "Lars and the Real Girl," Nancy Oliver "Michael Clayton," Tony Gilroy "Ratatouille," screenplay by Brad Bird; story by Jan Pinkava, Jim Capobianco, Brad Bird "The Savages," Tamara Jenkins -- Cinematography "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," Roger Deakins "Atonement," Seamus McGarvey "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," Janusz Kaminski "No Country for Old Men," Roger Deakins "There Will Be Blood," Robert Elswit -- Film editing "The Bourne Ultimatum," Christopher Rouse "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," Juliette Welfling "Into the Wild," Jay Cassidy "No Country for Old Men," Roderick Jaynes "There Will Be Blood," Dylan Tichenor -- Documentary feature "No End in Sight," Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs "Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience," Richard E. Robbins "Sicko,"...

Show up and be yourself -- and get paid to do it. That's the job description Patton Oswalt accepted when he was cast as the lead voice in the new Pixar/Disney film, "Ratatouille." The film revolves around a rat named Remy (Oswalt) who dreams of becoming a master chef at a five-star restaurant in Paris. The voice of Remy had been difficult to cast, but then one day writer-director Brad Bird heard a routine of Oswalt's on the radio. "I was talking about the Black Angus Steak House....

ARTIST 1. Eric Fischl was all smiles at LACMA's opening celebration of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum on Feb. 9, where the glitterati -- Tom! Katie! -- came out in droves. But the true VIPs of the night: billionaire philanthropist 2. Eli Broad and wife Edythe, whose $60-million donation gave the Los Angeles County Museum of Art a much-needed home for contemporary art. Guests, decked out in gowns and tuxes, peeped 200 works from postwar artists, including Jeff Koons, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and 3. Cindy Sherman, who toasted her inclusion with former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne.

REMY, c'est moi? It's hard not to think that when meeting Brad Bird, "Ratatouille's" writer-director. He thoroughly identifies with his rat protagonist Remy, who yearns to be a chef in the heretofore unwelcoming kitchen of the legendary French restaurant Gusteau. Remy, an unsung artist with a sensational sense of smell, is a misfit in his tribe of rats.

Animated feature "Persepolis," Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud "Ratatouille," Brad Bird "Surf's Up," Ash Brannon and Chris Buck -- Foreign language film "Beaufort," Israel "The Counterfeiters," Austria "Katy{nacutel}," Poland "Mongol," Kazakhstan "12," Russia -- Adapted screenplay "Atonement," Christopher Hampton "Away From Her," Sarah Polley "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," Ronald Harwood "No Country for Old Men," Joel Coen & Ethan Coen "There Will Be Blood," Paul Thomas Anderson -- Original screenplay "Juno," Diablo Cody "Lars and the Real Girl," Nancy Oliver "Michael Clayton," Tony Gilroy "Ratatouille," screenplay by Brad Bird; story by Jan Pinkava, Jim Capobianco, Brad Bird "The Savages," Tamara Jenkins -- Cinematography "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," Roger Deakins "Atonement," Seamus McGarvey "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," Janusz Kaminski "No Country for Old Men," Roger Deakins "There Will Be Blood," Robert Elswit -- Film editing "The Bourne Ultimatum," Christopher Rouse "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," Juliette Welfling "Into the Wild," Jay Cassidy "No Country for Old Men," Roderick Jaynes "There Will Be Blood," Dylan Tichenor -- Documentary feature "No End in Sight," Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs "Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience," Richard E. Robbins "Sicko,"...

Regarding "The Recipe for 'Ratatouille,' " (June 28): I have a rat -- oops, I mean bone -- to pick with writer-director Brad Bird. My dear son Remy, 11, is about to endure his own personal summer of hell. I wasn't sure what the fallout from "Ratatouille" would be until we had a taste of it on a ferry ride around the San Francisco Bay. When I yelled out his name, a gaggle of kids sitting nearby excitedly started chanting, "Remy the rat, Remy the rat, Remy the rat." We were speechless.

Show up and be yourself -- and get paid to do it. That's the job description Patton Oswalt accepted when he was cast as the lead voice in the new Pixar/Disney film, "Ratatouille." The film revolves around a rat named Remy (Oswalt) who dreams of becoming a master chef at a five-star restaurant in Paris. The voice of Remy had been difficult to cast, but then one day writer-director Brad Bird heard a routine of Oswalt's on the radio. "I was talking about the Black Angus Steak House....

IF we are living in a golden age of animation -- and we are -- one of the reasons is writer-director Brad Bird. That's somewhat ironic, because as his new "Ratatouille" demonstrates, what makes Bird so unusual is that he doesn't really think of himself as an animator at all.

ARTIST 1. Eric Fischl was all smiles at LACMA's opening celebration of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum on Feb. 9, where the glitterati -- Tom! Katie! -- came out in droves. But the true VIPs of the night: billionaire philanthropist 2. Eli Broad and wife Edythe, whose $60-million donation gave the Los Angeles County Museum of Art a much-needed home for contemporary art. Guests, decked out in gowns and tuxes, peeped 200 works from postwar artists, including Jeff Koons, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and 3. Cindy Sherman, who toasted her inclusion with former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne.

IF we are living in a golden age of animation -- and we are -- one of the reasons is writer-director Brad Bird. That's somewhat ironic, because as his new "Ratatouille" demonstrates, what makes Bird so unusual is that he doesn't really think of himself as an animator at all.

WHEN Brad Bird was brought in to take over "Ratatouille," a new movie about -- sacre bleu! -- a rodent in a five-star Parisian restaurant, he immediately took issue with the rats. They were all wrong. To begin with, they were walking around on two legs. And they had short tails. "They were trying to deratify the rats," Bird said of the animators who were working on the Pixar/Disney film before he came on board.

"The Incredibles," a fable about a family of superheroes, beat out "Shark Tale" and "Shrek 2" to win the Oscar for best animated feature. Writer-director Brad Bird thanked "the holy trinity" of Pixar Animation Studios -- chief Steve Jobs, President Ed Catmull and its animation guru, John Lasseter -- for "making the greatest studio on the face of the Earth." The victory is a vindication for fresh-faced Bird, who's knocked around Hollywood for decades as a "potential" animation wonder.